protonscr

(Bug?) Custom proton runners make steam have a error (invalid prefix 0)

steamclosed
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#12988 · opened 2026-03-16 by pollux78 · updated 2026-03-16 · 1 comments · github
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Ppollux78 2026-03-16 github

Your system information

  • Steam client version (build number or date): 1773367340
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): CachyOS
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No]Yes
  • Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No]Yes
  • Steam Logs:
    steam-logs.tar.gz
  • GPU: AMD RX 6700 10GB

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

When you have custom proton runners installed like GE-Proton, CachyOS-Proton, Proton-EM etc, steam will spit out some errors that KDE Plasma shows as fatal for steam.

the error that causes this to appear is this from steams logs

Proton: Upgrading prefix from GE-Proton10-32 to EM-10.1000-202 (/home/linuxnext2/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/0/)
Proton: Prefix has an invalid version?! You may want to back up user files and delete this prefix.
ProtonFixes[55397] WARN: Skipping fix execution. We are probably running a unit test.


When i delete the 0 prefix it will get recreated aswell so the error just keeps popping up every time you launch steam unless you uninstall these custom proton runners.

Image

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Install a custom proton runner like GE-Proton from apps like protonplus
  2. Run steam in terminal
  3. Watch it do the same error as above + if using kde plasma it will do a pop up error aswell for steam
Kkisak-valve maintainer 2026-03-16 github

Hello @pollux78, wineprefix appid 0 is used when Steam probes Proton for what translation layers are in them to match against the shader pre-cache subsystem. The crash you've described is in a third party Proton build and needs to be evaluated and resolved by the maintainers of that third party build.

Proton versions